1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control device, control method and control program that control home electrical appliances via a communication line. Further, the present invention relates to a home electrical appliance which is controlled by the control device via the communication line.
2. Description of the Related Art
While, on the one hand, the environment of households of the twenty-first century is affected by a variety of problems such as the development of global environmental problems, a dwindling birthrate and an aging population, and so forth, the opportunities for forging links between the household and society (outside the home) are increasing as information communication infrastructures rapidly develop. Therefore, services which result from links with society and which are safe, comfortable and take the global environment into consideration are surely a requirement for households of the twenty-first century.
In order to adapt to such circumstances, recent years have witnessed the development of home network systems such as the home bus standard HBS, and ECHONET, and so forth. These home network systems are systems that form home networks connecting a variety of home electrical appliances, home equipment, and control devices within the home to one another via a communication network formed by a domestic communication line, causing these elements to operate efficiently in co-operation with one another. Thus, home networks and external networks are connected to one another and the operation of home electrical appliances is instructed via external terminals, whereby it is possible to comply with energy conservation and adapt to the dwindling birthrate and aging population and to provide a safe and comfortable life. Furthermore, in this specification, electrical goods that are capable of a connection to a home network which include not only so-called household appliances (home electrical appliances in the narrow sense of the word) but also sensors for measuring and sensing home equipment and the home environment, and so forth are collectively referred to as ‘home electrical appliances’ (home electrical appliances in a broader sense of the word).
In FIG. 13, a conventional home network system is constituted as comprising a server 111 for providing a service using the Internet, a home network 114, and an external communication line 112 for connecting the server 111 and the home network 114 to one another. The home network 114 is constituted as comprising a home gateway 121 constituting an interface with the external communication line 112, a controller 122 for controlling operating states of each home electrical appliance 123, home electrical appliances 123 (such as an air conditioner 123-1, an electric fan 123-2, a cleaner 123-3, and a smoke detector 123-4, for example), and a domestic communication line 124 for connecting the home gateway 121, the controller 122, and the home electrical appliances 123 to one another.
In addition, the controller 122 is charged with controlling the operation of the home electrical appliances 123 and stores a device code table 150 in a memory (not shown) which the controller 122 comprises. In FIG. 14, the device code table 150 is a table that maps a device code 151 which is an identifier that identifies the type of home electrical appliance 123 allocated to each home electrical appliance 123, and a device name 152 that indicates the name of the home electrical appliance 123 corresponding to the device code 151.
Further, each home electrical appliance 123 is charged with interpreting control signals that are received from the controller 122 and other home electrical appliances 123 and so forth, and stores a built-in function table 160 in a memory (not shown) which the home electrical appliance 123 comprises, as well as the device code 151 which pertains to the home electrical appliance 123. In addition, a home network address that uniquely identifies the home electrical appliance 123 within the home network 114 is also stored in the memory. FIGS. 15A–15D show built-in function tables. In particular, FIG. 15A shows the built-in function table of an air conditioner, FIG. 15B shows the built-in function table of an electric fan, FIG. 15C shows the built-in function table of a cleaner, and FIG. 15D shows the built-in function table of a smoke detector. In FIGS. 15A–15D, the built-in function tables 160 are each constituted by a function code 161, which is an identifier that identifies the function types allocated for each of the functions which the home electrical appliance 123 is capable of executing, a function name 162, which indicates the name of the function represented by the function code 161, a function description 163, which is a description of the function executed by the home electrical appliance 123 that corresponds to the function code 161, a data type 164, which indicates the data type of a control description that indicates the state to which the function corresponding to the function code is controlled, a size 165, which indicates the data length of the control description that corresponds to the function code 161, and a value range 166, which is a numerical value range permitting setting of the control description that corresponds to the function code 161. For example, in the case of the air conditioner 123-1, upon referring to the built-in function table 160-1 of the air conditioner, it may be seen that, for the function code 15, the function name 162 is “current time setting”, the function description 163 is “function for setting current time”, the data type 164 is “unsigned char (character string without numbers)”, the size 165 is “2 bytes”, and “hours can be set in the range 0 to 23” and “minutes can be set in the range 0 to 59” is set in the value range 166.
In this constitution, the home electrical appliance 123 first references the memory and thus transmits a signal containing the device code 151, function code 161 and home network address which pertain to this home electrical appliance 123 to the controller 122. Upon receiving this signal, the controller 122 creates a connected home electrical appliance function table that indicates the relationship between the home network address, the device code 151 and the function code 161 and then stores this table in memory.
Here, as may be seen from the tables in FIG. 15, although the same function code sometimes represents the same function, generally speaking, the same function code represents different functions depending on the type of home electrical appliance. For example, when the function code=10, this is common for the home electrical appliances 123 and denotes the device operation settings, when the function code=11, this denotes the ventilation amount setting for the air conditioner 123-1 and the electric fan 123-2, denotes the cleaning level for the cleaner 123-3, and denotes the smoke sensing ground state for the smoke detector 123-4.
For this reason, in a case where the controller 122 captures and sets the operating state of a certain function for a certain home electrical appliance 123, and so forth, the controller 122 operates as follows. That is, in a case where the controller 122 captures the operating state of a certain function for a certain home electrical appliance 123, the controller 122 specifies a device code 151 by referencing the device code table 150 on the basis of the device name of a certain home electrical appliance 123 constituting the control target. Next, the controller 122 references a connected home electrical appliance function table and specifies a record which corresponds to the specified device code 151. Then, the controller 122 specifies a home network address from the specified record, and specifies a function code 161 which corresponds to a certain function. The controller 122 then generates a signal that contains information to the effect that the specified home network address, device code 151, function code 161 and function operating state are to be captured, and transmits this signal to the domestic communication line 124. Also, in a case where the controller 122 sets the operating state of a certain function for a certain home electrical appliance 123, the controller 122 specifies the device code 151 by referencing the device code table 150 on the basis of the device name of a certain home electrical appliance 123 constituting the control target. Next, the controller 122 references a connected home electrical appliance function table and specifies a record which corresponds to the specified device code 151. Then, the controller 122 specifies a home network address from the specified record and specifies a function code 161 which corresponds to a certain function. The controller 122 then generates a signal that contains the specified home network address, device code 151, function code 161 and information on the set value of the operating state of the function, and transmits this signal to the domestic communication line 124.
Further, because a function code is allocated to each type of home electrical appliance and to each of the functions of the home electrical appliances 123 as described above, the same function code does not necessarily represent the same function. For this reason, even in a case where the controller 122 executed the same function when controlling the operating state of a home electrical appliance 123, the function code could not previously be specified without first considering the home electrical appliance constituting the control target. Further, in a case where a product produced by adding a new function to a product of an existing type was developed, and in a case where a composite product produced by combining products of a plurality of types as a single product was developed (an example of a composite product being a so-called radio-cassette recorder that combines a radio and a cassette tape recorder), and so forth, it was necessary to newly create a function code for the developed product. Although, in a case where a new function code is set by one company, this code could be set without collaborating with other companies so as to preserve the secrecy of the new product under development, home network systems require standardization for new function codes and so forth between a plurality of companies that produces home electrical appliances. For this reason, the preservation of the secrecy of new products is difficult and collaboration with other companies is required, and, more particularly, has proved to be an important issue.